The invention further relates to a device for implementing this method and a food product which is produced according to this method.
Methods for producing formed food products of this type are known from EP 1 156 720 B 1. In this method, whole pieces of grown meat are used as the primary product, which are introduced into a mold cavity and reformed into a geometry which is predefined by the mold cavity by a stamp. Depending on the height and width of the primary product, reforming must be carried out to a greater or lesser extent. The piece of meat formed in this manner is then removed from the mold cavity and can then be fed to further processing, in particular to a cooking or other preparation process.
Although meat products with a desired form can be produced with the known method, there is the risk owing to the reforming of the meat that the structure of this meat is changed, despite processing which is as gentle as possible, to such an extent that the piece of meat produced in this manner differs from a natural piece of meat, in particular with respect to its visual appearance, tenderness and bite for the consumer.
Furthermore, the risk always exists with large deformation distances that cracks occur inadvertently in the cell structure of the meat, which can destroy the impression of a cohesive piece of meat, or during the subsequent cooking process can lead to the meat falling apart along this crack, discolorations appearing at these points, other ingredients entering these regions of destroyed cell structure or the product at least seeming fibrous.